According to vetstreet.com, the top ten female puppy names from 2012 include Bella, Daisy, Lucy, Molly, and Lola. Notice anything odd? They’re all human names! Gone are the days of pets named Fluffy and Pooch. In are the days of human children named after fruits and vegetables. In the Middle Ages, though, you might run into dogs that answer to Amiable, Trinket, Nosewise, Holdfast, and Clench. For more about pet ownership back then, check out historian Kathleen Walker Meikle’s book Medieval Pets. This is part of a complete episode.
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Co-workers laughed at my dog’s name – Jeffrey. But it made sense when I explained I had him a couple of months before I decided to keep him, so I had time to get to know his personality. Looking through a book of [human] names, I found Jeffrey, which is Old French for “divinely peaceful.” That certainly fit, so Jeffrey it was. (He was so mellow that he could calm down other dogs by just standing
(Besides, I said, I’m not gonna name him something stupid, then stand on the front porch where all the neighbors could hear me calling at the top of my voice, “Come here, Doodles”!)